


Harriet Evans and the Famous Cousin

by Chelonie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: BAMF Lily Evans Potter, Don’t copy to another site, Familial Relationships, Gen, Girl-Who-Lived (Harry Potter), Good Peter Pettigrew, Good Petunia Dursley, Harry Potter Has a Twin, Harry Potter is Harriet Evans, Harry Potter is a girl, Lily Evans Potter Lives, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Near Squib Harry Potter, Not Incest, Petunia Evans never married Vernon, Sister-Sister Relationship, WBWL
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2020-05-31 07:14:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 19,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19421077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chelonie/pseuds/Chelonie
Summary: When Voldemort attacked Godric Hollow, James Potter died defending his twin girls while Lily was away. Charlotte Potter was proclaimed the Girl-Who-Lived who destroyed Voldemort, while her twin Harriet was left a squib and sent to be adopted by her aunt Petunia Evans.Ten years later, Hogwarts letters are on the way, and Petunia's greatest fear is that her daughter might turn out to be a witch after all.





	1. A Perfectly Normal Birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harriet Evans has a perfectly normal birthday in which no one tells her about magic.

**23 June 1991**

"Why do you keep looking at the sky, Mum?" Harriet asked. 

"Oh, it's nothing, dear, nothing." Petunia Evans would not think about owls. Her daughter was perfectly normal, thank you very much, and there was no chance of an owl dropping in on her eleventh birthday and...

"Then can we get going? Betsy and Naziyah are going to get to the zoo before we do!" Harriet insisted. 

No one knew how Charlotte Potter had survived the killing curse that had left the famous scar on her forehead, but it had somehow rebounded, killed the evil wizard who had just killed the twins' father James, and blown up the house. When Lily had returned and found the girls in the rubble, it had been a miracle.

But miracles have their cost, and the cost of Charlotte Potter's miracle had been her twin's magic. Though both girls had been showing signs of accidental magic before the attack, afterwards, one girl's magical core was completely stripped. It had taken the grief-stricken Lily a few months to come to terms with it, but finally she had begged her sister to take her squib daughter and raise her in the muggle world.

Petunia had her own reasons to resent the magical world. She had been on the point of marriage, when she had revealed her sister's secret. It was too much for Vernon Dursley, and he had called it off, and then the Obliviators had removed his memory of the conversation. Then she had to come up with a mundane reason to break up with him, and deal with him calling and trying again, and finally she had appealed to the Ministry of Magic and they had Confunded him into giving up on her. 

She could have had the life she wanted - a house and garden, a child. But it was all gone, because of Lily's magic. 

And now Lily was trying to get her to take a child.

"I can't afford a child! I can barely afford to live in this flat, but I couldn't afford a two bedroom place, and clothes and toys and everything a child needs!" Petunia said, while looking at the little girl with longing in her heart.

"She has money," Lily said. "Her father had money. I'll make sure you're taken care of, Tuney. I can get a house for you both and a monthly stipend..." Lily sobbed. "You don't understand what it's like for squibs in the magical world. She'd be treated like garbage. Worse than that. I don't want that for her."

Petunia picked up the little girl, allowing herself to think for the first time what it might be like to be a mother to this child.

"If I do this, then I adopt her. She'll be mine, not yours. You don't tell her, you don't change your mind. We get a solicitor to do it legally and arrange the custody and money and everything," Petunia said fiercely.

And everything had been fine since then. Except for Petunia's lingering fear that a Hogwarts letter would come on Harriet's eleventh birthday. 

But as the day went on, her fears faded. She had never seen any magic from Harriet. There was no reason to think she wasn't a squib. The birthday trip to the zoo passed without incident, unless you counted Harriet standing and hissing at a boa constrictor for a few minutes an incident. (No one could convince the girl that she wasn't really talking to snakes when she did that.) But she got home with her two best friends, opened presents, ate cake, played in the yard, and eventually went to bed. And Petunia relaxed. There was no reason to worry about her daughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can Petunia be a good parent without Vernon Dursley in her life? YES SHE CAN!


	2. Aunt Lily

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harriet meets her cousin, and learns about magic.

**31 July 1991**

The month after Harriet turned eleven was one of the best of her life. Her Mum had been so tense all year, and suddenly it seemed to be over. Mum came outside and gardened with her, and even humoured her when she talked to the garden snakes. (Harriet knew Mum didn't believe her, but at least she was pretending to...) They had a tea party for Mum's friends, with scones that she and Mum had baked together (though it was getting too warm for baking) and they sat outside doing embroidery and listening to the blackbirds (Harriet's favourite of the birds that visited their bird feeder).

Then one day, just over a month after her birthday, everything changed. Harriet was weeding the flower bed in the front garden when a pretty woman with long red hair walked up the pavement towards 14 Privet Drive and stopped just outside their little fence.

"Does your mother make you do the gardening?" the woman asked in a sharp voice.

Harriet got to her feet, mud on her knees and hands, and feeling defensive. "No! I like gardening!" And then she saw the girl who was walking behind the woman, and her mouth fell open.

She was looking at her double - a girl with green eyes, black hair, and glasses. But instead of wearing muddy trainers and old clothes, the other girl was wearing a pink dress with puffy sleeves, a ruffled skirt, and a peter pan collar. If it wasn't for her glasses, and the scar on her forehead, she would look like a doll version of Harriet herself. The pink dress girl was staring at Harriet, probably as shocked at the resemblance as Harri was.

"Harriet, perhaps you should get your mother," the red-haired woman said.

That seemed to break Harriet out of her shock. She turned and ran inside, ignoring the mud on her shoes, shouting "Muuuuuum!"

* * *

Mum took one look at the strangers, and sent Harriet upstairs to wash her hands and change into clean clothes. 

Harriet wondered if she should put on a dress too, but she hated to wear dresses. She put on a pair of her newer shorts, then realised if she did that, she'd have to wash her knees, so she took them off and put on jeans. She put on one of the shirts she had added embroidery to, and her newer trainers, and slipped down to the first landing to see if she could hear what they were saying.

"... no magic at all! I don't know why you are here!" That was her Mum.

"Nevertheless, Hogwarts generated a letter for her, so we have to see. It isn't safe for her if she has magic and she isn't trained." That was the strange woman.

"You said you'd leave us alone!" Her Mum again.

"Tuney -" The strange woman.

"Don't call me that, Lily."

The pink dress girl seemed to have gotten tired of the argument, because she appeared at the bottom of the staircase and met Harriet's eyes. She hesitated, seeming to ask silently if it was okay for her to come up. Harriet nodded and gestured, and the girl came up the steps quietly until Harriet led her into her room.

"Sorry about our Mums," the girl said. "You don't know who I am, do you?"

Harriet shook her head.

The other girl giggled. "That's so weird. _Everyone_ knows me. I'm Charlotte Potter. I'm your cousin."

"And my clone?" Harriet asked. "We look just alike."

"Yeah," Charlotte said, looking at Harriet. "If you had longer hair. And different glasses."

"So our Mums are sisters? And they don't like each other?" Harriet asked.

"They haven't seen each other since we were babies, Mum said. Maybe they would have made it forever, but Mum has to come and check if you have magic," Charlotte said.

"Magic isn't real," Harriet said automatically, but she felt a sick feeling in her stomach.

"Of course it's real!" Charlotte said. "My Mum is a witch and I'm a witch and my Dad was a wizard, but he's dead, and I'm going to school to learn magic this year. I get to go and get my wand today because it's my eleventh birthday!"

"Is that why you're dressed up like that? To be a fairy princess?" Harriet asked.

Charlotte looked at her dress. "This was because we went to a muggle store to buy clothes for coming to see you, and this was the only one I liked."

"What's a muggle store?"

"You know, where you people buy stuff. Like... that." Charlotte gestured at Harriet's clothes. "Muggles are people without magic. Witches and Wizards are people with magic."

"But magic isn't real!" Harriet protested.

"Did you ever do anything when you were scared or angry or super excited? Things that no one around you could explain?" Charlotte asked.

Harriet thought about talking to snakes, but she really couldn't think of anything else she'd ever done that could be magical.

"No. I think this is a joke," she said definitively. "Magic isn't real."

Charlotte sighed. "Let's go see if our Mums are done fighting."

* * *

When they got downstairs, Harriet went directly to her Mum and sat next to her, with her arm around her. Her mother kissed her on the top of the head and looked towards her Aunt Lily. "We're perfectly fine without any Hogwarts."

"Just let her hold the tester wand," Lily said. "If she's still a Squib, then we'll know for good."

She was holding a brightly glowing stick out towards Harriet, but Harriet looked up at her Mum before taking it. "Is she serious? Magic is real?"

"It's real," her Mum said, in a sad voice. "They want to test if you have it. You didn't when you were a baby, so it should be the same now."

Harriet reached out and took the stick. Her aunt Lily let go of it. And the stick still glowed. Not very bright. Just a faint green, rather than the brilliant red it had glowed when her aunt was holding it. But it was glowing.

"That's not very much!" her Mum said.

"It's enough," Lily said. 

"Yes!" Charlotte said. "You're coming to Hogwarts with me! We're going to be the best of friends, and we'll be in Gryffindor together, and it'll be so excellent!"

"I really don't understand..." Harriet said. 

And that's when her mother started crying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have a trope salad! Girl-Who-Lived! Lily Lives! Wrong Girl-Who-Lived! Good Petunia! Nearly Squib Harri!
> 
> Petunia and Harriet live on 14 Privet Drive, which is a 3 bedroom rather than a 4 bedroom house like 4 Privet Drive. The cupboard under the stairs holds out of season clothing, though there was a period when Harri was five that she pretended it was her secret hide out.


	3. Wands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harri and Charlie get their wands.

Lily watched Petunia's child _(my child)_ try to comfort her mother, and wished that she had at least visited over the years. She had thought of it. Wanted to. But the thought of seeing the daughter she had given up, that James had died for, was just too much. And now she was going to have to see her every day. She had been her daughter's protector over the last decade, and now that Charlie was starting at Hogwarts, she had to go to Hogwarts too. Lily was starting as the Magic Theory teacher this term.

"Can't you just... take the magic away?" Harriet asked. "Then I could stay here with Mum."

"There isn't a way to take magic away from someone," Lily said. "We can block someone from using it, by putting a specially made collar on them, but we only do that to criminals. It isn't a thing we would ever do to children."

"How big is the collar?" Harriet asked stubbornly.

"Too big to hide. You would get questions and stares all the time. It would look like someone was trying to lock you up in chains." Lily said.

Petunia stroked her daughter's _(my daughter's)_ hair. "It's okay, Harri. I always knew this might happen. After all, your aunt Lily is a witch, so that means magic is in your veins. And you'll still see me at Christmas and summer breaks."

"Why aren't you a witch?" Harriet asked.

"I don't know," Petunia said. "I wanted to be, when I was your age. I thought Lily was so lucky to go to Hogwarts." She put on a brave smile. "And now you'll go and make lots of friends. And you already have a cousin there."

"Charlotte said she's famous," Harriet said, looking between the adults, and the other girl, dressed in pink organza. 

"Yes," Lily said. "Before we go and buy your school supplies, you need to know about Charlie and her father."

* * *

Lily told the story without breaking. She had told it to the press enough times over the years by now. Always, always, she saw the second child in the rubble, the one she had thought was drained of all magic. The one she now pretended didn't exist.

They had been in hiding when she'd given birth to twins. Only a few trusted souls had been in contact, and some of them were killed over the next year of the war. And Petunia had changed the girl's name, from Josephine to Harriet. She had changed her date of birth on the muggle birth certificate to make her a month older. She had raised her with love and care. Somehow, there had been no bouts of accidental magic, which was possible, if rare. It spoke to an upbringing that was calm and tranquil. Harriet must be sending her magic somewhere, but it wasn't coming out in bursts. 

But there was now a girl who looked nearly identical to the Girl-Who-Lived. She wasn't prepared for that life the way Charlie was, and didn't deserve it.

"What do you think about going blonde, like your mother?" Lily asked. "That might keep people from mistaking you for your si-cousin, and bothering you."

Harriet looked to Petunia, who nodded. "Okay. I guess so. Do you want me to go to the chemist and pick up a box of hair dye?"

Lily smiled. "It's much easier than that." And she spoke the incantation and waved her wand over Harriet's hair. Hair charms were tricky, because you needed to get variations in the colour in order for it to look natural. But Lily and Charlie often had need to go out without being recognised, so it was a charm she used frequently. When she was finished, she conjured a mirror to let Harriet look at herself.

"Oh wow! I look so different! I look like you, Mum!" said Harriet, now with blonde hair and green eyes. That and the lack of scar on her forehead _(she had a scar over her heart, but no one cared about that, not even Harriet)_ should protect her well enough in the magical world.

"You look beautiful," Petunia said, with tears in her eyes.

* * *

Lily offered to take the girls to Diagon Alley without her, but Petunia insisted on going. Even though Lily warned her it was going to be a Press Event for the Girl-Who-Lived. 

"Her birthday is always a big event. It raises a lot of money for charity. But we aren't having the official party until the weekend. Today is for her school shopping." Lily said.

"And school shopping with a muggleborn cousin..." Petunia said.

"You'll be part of the story, no matter what. I learned years ago it's better to feed the press. If they're starving, they'll go hunting for stories, and come up with the worst," Lily said. "Charlie, are you sure you want to go in that dress?"

"I love this dress!" Charlie said. "Let them see me wearing muggle fashion. It'll be cool."

Lily winced, knowing the dress was not exactly typical muggle fashion. But Charlie would look adorable in her pictures. "Let me re-curl your hair," Lily said. After a few touch-ups, she looked at her sister. "As soon as you are ready."

* * *

As soon as the Portkey finished materialising them in the alley near the Leaky Cauldron, Lily handed a couple of vials of stomach soother to her sister and _(daughter)_ niece. "Drink. You'll feel better."

Charlie, of course, was a pro at all forms of magical travel, and didn't even stumble. As soon as everyone had recovered, they went inside. The appearance of Charlie Potter made a bit of a sensation, and she shook hands and accepted birthday wishes graciously. Then Lily took them to the entrance to Diagon Alley, and she heard Harriet gasp. She remembered the first time she'd seen it, when she had been eleven, brought by Professor Sprout, and how amazed she had been. How envious Petunia had been. 

Now, Petunia was only protective of her daughter. But there was a problem neither of them had thought of until they arrived. Harriet Evans (formerly Josephine Potter) had a vault at Gringotts. But how to get money out of it without making her daughter suspicious? 

"Just let me pay today," Lily murmured to Petunia. "Then you can tell her you set up the account while she was at school."

"I'd rather just convert pounds to wizard money," Petunia said.

"You're letting the goblins take a double cut if you do that. They already got a cut when they converted it from galleons to pounds for the trust fund payout. They'll get another if the currency is changed again," Lily warned.

"I don't care. I pay for my daughter," Petunia said. Lily fought the urge to say that it was James paying for both daughters, because it wasn't as if _he_ had worked for the money. He had been born to affluence, and had no more deserved it than anyone deserves the circumstances of their birth. But she thought she understood what Petunia was saying. She didn't want _Lily_ to pay for anything of Harriet's. She didn't want to owe her sister. 

So Lily and Charlie gave an impromptu press interview with Rita Skeeter while Petunia waited in the bank with Harriet to change money over into galleons. 

"And that's such an... interesting... set of robes dear!" Rita was saying, when her sister and niece came out.

"It's muggle wear!" Charlie said proudly. "I wore it to visit my muggleborn cousin Harriet - look, there she is!" Charlie skipped over and looped her arm into Harriet's. "Rita, this is my cousin Harriet Evans! We're starting at Hogwarts together!"

Harriet managed to squeak out a few answers to Rita's questions, and Lily gave her a warning look to suggest that whatever Rita wrote about Harriet had better be sympathetic and kind, or she'd lose her access to Charlie Potter. Rita's photographer snapped some photos, with the usual proviso that Lily got to have first look at all photos before any of them went to press.

"Don't worry, Petunia, I won't let them eat her alive," Lily promised, seeing Petunia gripping her handbag white knuckled. "I've got a lot of practice at this."

"I don't want her to be hurt!" Petunia said. "She's so innocent, compared to Charlotte."

"Charlie has had to learn. She's had people after her, for good reasons and bad, since she was a baby. But I've taught her to protect herself, and I'll make sure she protects Harriet too," Lily said.

* * *

"Charlotte Potter... I thought I would be seeing you today. And your -"

" _Cousin_." Lily broke in, interrupting Ollivander. She had forgotten how he seemed to know everything. "Harriet Evans."

"Yes. Harriet Evans." He said mildly.

"I want to use my father's wand," Charlie said. "But Mum said I had to check with you first."

"Oh yes. The wand chooses the wizard. Or in this case, the witch. Let me see your wand arm."

And after a long period of measurements and tests, Ollivander finally allowed Charlie to pick up her father's wand and immediately a silver-blue wave of magic curled around her, and Lily almost, _almost_ , could have sworn that Prongs was prancing around her. This was one event in her daughter's life that the press had not been invited to. Later, she would get a photo out of a pensieve to put in their album, but it was not to be shared with the world. This was between her, James, and Charlotte.

"Dad..." Charlie whispered.

"Very well, Miss Potter. Mahogany, eleven inches, dragon heartstring. That wand certainly wants to be yours. Now, Miss Evans. Step up here."

"What's a heartstring?" Harriet asked.

"It's one of the tendons inside the heart," said Ollivander.

"Do they kill dragons to get them?!" Harriet said, aghast. 

"No, no, my dear. That's quite illegal. Only dragons that die naturally are permitted to be harvested for their parts."

Harriet pursed her lips, in an expression so like Petunia that Lily caught her breath. "Do you have vegetarian wands?"

Ollivander looked quite puzzled. "I don't know what a vegetarian is, Miss Evans, so I'm afraid I've never made a wand from one."

Harriet shook her head. "No, no, I mean wands that aren't made out of animals. I don't want a wand made out of a dragon's heart or anyone's heart, even if it died naturally."

"All of my wands have animal parts in their cores, but some of them are hairs or feathers that fall off naturally during the animals lifetime. Will that be acceptable, Miss Evans?" 

Harriet considered for a moment, looked to her mother, and then nodded. What followed was a prolonged search between dozens of wands, with Harriet growing more and more discouraged. 

"I don't think I'm really a witch after all," she said. "I should just go home..."

"No, no, I've never failed to match a witch to her wand," said Mr Ollivander. "Let me look in the back. My apprentice Gaius has just finished one that he was ever so excited about."

He returned with a wand that wasn't in a box at all. It was a pale coloured wood, with a smooth round shaft and a handle that was engraved in scales. A stone with a hole in the center (an adder stone, Lily realised) was embedded in the base of the handle. "Try this one."

Harriet lifted it, and Lily knew at once it was a match. The girl's hair lifted and there was a breath of fresh air that smelled like earth just after rain. Harriet laughed and spun, then hugged Petunia. "I'm a witch, Mum!"

"Larch wood, ten inches, viper skin, with an adder stone in the hilt," Ollivander said happily. "Gaius will be so happy - it's his first wand sale."

"And it was a naturally shed skin, right?" Harriet asked.

"Oh yes."

Petunia paid for Harriet's wand, and both parents bought wand holsters and wand care kits for their daughters, and as they walked back out into Diagon Alley, Harriet was waving her wand and prancing in the street. 

"I like vipers. Oh! Aunt Lily! I forgot to ask. Is it because I'm a witch that I can talk to snakes?"

The smile froze on Lily's face. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon!Ollivander: Only uses dragon heartstring, unicorn tail, and phoenix feather as wand cores.  
> Canon: There are only two known domesticated phoenixes, Fawkes and a phoenix in New Zealand.  
> Canon: Fawkes has only donated two feathers ever (stingy bastard!)  
> Canon: Dragons are a protected species.  
> Canon: Unicorn hair is worth 10 galleons a hair.  
> Canon: Wands are 7 galleons each.  
> Author: THIS MAKES NO SENSE!!!!!


	4. Snakes are cool

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harri defends her ability to talk to snakes. More purchases are made.

"But _why_ do I have to keep it a secret?" Harriet asked, for the fourth time. "Snakes are _cool."_

Charlie didn't know how to explain it to her cousin. "Because the worst Dark Wizard ever, who killed my Dad, could talk to snakes. Salazar Slytherin could talk to snakes. Only _bad people_ talk to snakes."

"But I can talk to snakes, and I'm not bad!" Harriet said. "Snakes are just animals - they don't care about good or evil. They care about warmth and food and eggs."

"Harri, just trust us - you have to keep it a secret!" Charlie begged. She could see that Harri was looking stubborn, so she thought of an idea. "How about you promise to keep it a secret for your first year at Hogwarts, and then we talk about it again next summer? When you know more about the magical world? Please? Pretty please?"

Aunt Petunia put a hand on Harri's shoulder. "Hon, I think maybe you should listen to them. They know more about the magical world than we do."

Harri sighed heavily and threw up her hands. "Fine! I won't tell anyone for a year! Unless I absolutely have to."

"Why do you think you might have to?" Charlie's Mum asked.

"Well what if a great poisonous snake was about to bite someone, and I could talk it into calming down?" Harri said. "That probably won't ever happen, because snakes don't really like to attack people, but it might. I don't want to be bound to a promise I might have to break."

"Okay, only in an emergency though," Mum said. 

* * *

The rest of the shopping went okay, even if Harriet make terrible faces at the school robes, and checked that she would be allowed to wear muggle clothes in evenings and weekends. There was a second press interview with a spokeswitch from the Wix Wireless Network, in which Charlie got to exclaim happily about getting to use her father's wand at school in September. They only gave Charlie's cousin the barest of mentions, which seemed unfair to Charlie, but Harri seemed fine to be ignored. 

When she was finished with that, Harri and her Aunt Petunia had disappeared, but Mum said they had promised to meet them at the ice cream shop. A little while later, Harri offered Charlie a small wrapped box. "Happy birthday," she said shyly.

"You didn't have to..." Charlie said.

"Yes I did," Harri said. "And this isn't for your charity, this is for you."

Charlie opened the box, and inside was a gold pendant in the shape of a rose. "Our grandmother's name was Rose," Harri said. "She died before either of us were born, but I think she'd be glad we're friends now. The jeweller said that your Mum can add magic to it, if she wants to." Harri bit her lip. "But if you don't like it..."

Charlie threw her arms around Harri. "I love it! Put it on me right now, it's perfect! Thank you! Thank you so much! Oh! I should get one for you!"

Harri pulled a face. "I'm not the jewellery type."

"What do you like?" Charlie asked.

"Gardening. Baking. Embroidery." Charlie said. "You don't have to get me anything. My birthday isn't for 11 months."

Charlie took her Mum's hands. "We can go to Whimsic Alley, to that shop! With all the threads! Harri will love it!"

"Yes, we can, but not today. We're running out of day," Mum said. "I promise - we'll get Harri a wonderful late birthday present when we come back next week."

"I never did needlework," Charlie told Harri. "But it's really neat looking. My friend Susan does it, and so do Parvati and Padma. And Mrs Weasley knits. I don't know if she does embroidery. I wish I knew how."

"It's not difficult," Harri said. "You just need good light and a steady hand."

"Haha... that's my problem. I can't sit still!" said Charlie.

"Could you get..." Harri looked at Charlie's Mum. "I don't know how expensive it is. The cameras that take pictures that move? So I can take pictures at school for Mum?"

Mum smiled. "We can get that for you."

* * *

Charlie tried to wheedle her Mum into letting her get a cat, but Mum was firm. One pet per student, no exceptions for the Girl-Who-Lived, who already had a tawny owl. They were in the Menagerie to get Harri an owl, and that was it. Harri looked longingly at the snakes, but didn't go over and talk to them. Instead, she chose a beautiful snowy white owl.

"You should name her Duckie," Charlie said. "Or Sparrow. Or Robin."

Harri gazed at her blankly. "Why would I name an owl after another bird?"

"Because Charlie was six when she named her own owl Budgie, and now the bird won't answer to anything else," Lily said. "She's trying to share her shame."

"Shut up, Mum," Charlie said, with a mock push on the shoulder. 

"Make me, kiddo," Mum said. 

"Hey, I've got a wand now - maybe I can!" Charlie said. 

"In your dreams," Mum said. Though Charlie knew that now that she could do magic, Mum would start training her until she really _could_ defeat an adult. It would have to happen, because there would always be bad witches and wizards who would come after her for what she had done. There may even be another Dark Lord or Lady one day that she might have to try and defeat. (With Mum's help - Mum was the most dangerous witch Charlie had ever heard of. She could be a Dark Lady herself if she ever went bad.)

"I'll come up with a better name for you than Budgie," Harri promised her owl.

* * *

Finally, they returned to the strange muggle street, and returned Charlie's cousin and aunt to their home, with Harri's school supplies. It wasn't the last time they saw them before September first.

Charlie wanted Harri to come to her big official birthday celebration for charity, but both Mum's said it was a bad idea. Charlie didn't see why. She could have introduced Harri to the Minister for Magic and Headmaster Dumbledore and all her friends.

They did make the promised trip to Whimsic Alley, where Harri exclaimed over the embroidery shop and bought several books and a kit. She seemed to think it was something new to make embroidery that could move!

Another visit was to give Harri her immunisations, which make her miserable for 24 hours.

And the last one was to take Aunt Petunia and Harri to Charlie's oculist, since Harri got her eyes examined every year before school. Charlie's Mum had talked Aunt Petunia to taking her to get magical glasses instead of muggle ones.

"We should get the same glasses!" Charlie told Harri.

"I don't want to look just like you!" Harri said. "That's why I have blonde hair now."

"Oh... right. But still... it'd be fun!"

"You should get the glasses that look best for press pictures," Harri said. "And I'll get some like this..." She picked up a pair that were nerdy looking horn-rimmed glasses.

"Those are boys glasses!" Charlie said, aghast. The ones she wanted were delicate tortoiseshell frames that could change colours to match her clothing.

"I like them!" Harri said stubbornly. 

And nothing Charlie could say could talk Harri out of her horrible glasses. 

* * *

After the oculist, that was the last time she would see her cousin until September first. Aunt Petunia said she knew the way to Kings Cross and would take Harri herself, and they would meet them on the platform. That was one place the press wasn't allowed, for safety's sake. So Charlie could just be herself, and not the Girl-Who-Lived. 

Mum had given her an emergency portkey, of course. After talking to Aunt Petunia, and learning that Harri would wear a watch, if not a necklace, Mum got Harri a mechanical watch that would work at Hogwarts, and charmed it to be a portkey as well, and showed her how to use it. 

There would be adults on the train, but no one wanted to ride the train with grown-ups. The whole point of riding the train was to make friends!

"I'll see you on the platform!" Charlie said, hugging her cousin. "It'll be great! Don't forget to send your owl ahead so she doesn't have to ride in the train the whole way. Just tell her to go to Hogwarts - she'll know where to go. And if you have a galleon with you, that's enough money for snacks on the train. And you'll want a book, or some embroidery, because it's 8 or 9 hours. And..."

"It's time to go, Charlotte," Mum said. "Goodbye, Petunia, Harriet. See you on the first."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> canon: Post owls can find any place anywhere.  
> canon: Students take their owls back and forth to Hogwarts in cages.  
> Author: Why? Just... why?  
> Author: Let Hedwig fly to Scotland! Pigwidgeon doesn't want to be in a cage for 9 hours!  
> Author: Why does Hedwig have a cage anyway? She's tame! She just needs a perch, like Fawkes.


	5. Hogwarts Express

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harri and Charlie take the Hogwarts Express

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I aged Luna a year so she can be in Harri and Charlie's year. No, I'm not sorry.

Harri still wasn't entirely convinced she was magical. She read the muggleborn introduction to the magical world. She practiced writing with a quill. She read _Hogwarts: A History_... at least the first few chapters. It was pretty dry reading. 

She kept surprising herself in the mirror with her blonde hair, but she liked it. She decided she would grow it out longer (it was currently just above her shoulders) until she could wear it in a french braid. Alice bands were definitely muggle style, she knew, but they'd have to do until then, because it just hung down into her face and got in her way. Aunt Lily had pulled her aside and warned her about some of the prejudice against muggleborn witches and wizards, and some of the ugly names she might be called. Harri decided she didn't care. She wasn't going to be _ashamed_ of her Mum! She wasn't going to give up blue jeans and biros for robes and quills - at least not completely. At least she had her Aunt Lily to talk to if she got confused about anything. She was glad she wasn't going off to school on her own.

She just wished she could take Mum with her, or that it wasn't a boarding school. 

* * *

On September 1st, they took the bus and train to King's Cross, where Aunt Lily had told them how to get onto the platform. Mum had to hold Harri's hand, or she couldn't pass through the barrier, and Harri fretted wondering how Mum would get back home.

"It's okay, Harriet. There's an engineer who lets everyone out after the train has left. I did this back when Lily was little, remember? They know they have to let muggle parents go back through." Mum said.

"Oh right," Harri said.

"Come on, we're blocking the barrier," Mum said. And sure enough, another family came through just then - a boy and his grandmother. 

Harri pulled her trunk off to the side, and sat down on it, since there was no sign of Charlie yet. "Mum..."

"Yes, love?" Petunia asked.

"Do I have to go?"

Harri looked up into her mother's green eyes, waiting for the answer. Waiting for her to say 'yes'. But she finally said, "If you really don't want to go, then we won't. You'd still have to learn magic, but we could hire a tutor for home school, or we could move somewhere that would let you have a day school. I promise, Harri. I will find a way to do what you want, if you don't want to go."

Harriet hugged her mother tightly, and started crying. "I love you, Mum."

"I love you too, Harriet Larkspur Evans."

"I guess... I'm going to Hogwarts."

"I know." Mum kissed her on the forehead. "But if you ever change your mind, it's okay."

The moment was broken up by Charlie shouting across the platform. "HAAAAARRI!" Everyone turned to look at her. Harri wanted to hide. Charlie was wearing robes instead of a party dress, but they were fluffy light blue robes which looked just as dressy, if a little odd to Harri's muggleborn eyes. 

Of course nearly everyone on the platform knew who Charlie Potter was. She was used to being stared at. But Harri was not used to the stares that immediately went from Charlie to her, as the famous Girl-Who-Lived skipped up to her and took her hands. "You made it! I was so worried when Mum said you were travelling muggle style!"

"But we have been travelling muggle style all our lives," Harri said. "It's perfectly safe."

"You might have been late!" Charlie said. "Come on, let me introduce you to my friends!"

* * *

Harri was pretty sure she wasn't going to remember all of the names. Charlie knew so many people, of all ages, and finally Harri said, "I'm going to go get a compartment," and she was pretty sure that Charlie didn't hear her. 

She hugged and kissed her mother goodbye, and dragged her trunk onto the train.

"Want a hand?" It was a tall red-haired boy.

"Yes, please," Harri said.

"Oy! Fred! C'mere and help!" the boy called. And another boy who looked just like him appeared and helped get Harri's trunk up onto the luggage rack of the first empty compartment she found.

"Do you want your rucksack up there too?" he said.

"No, it's my stuff for the trip, and my clothes to change into," Harri said. "I'm Harriet Evans. Thank you for your help."

"You're Charlie Potter's cousin, aren't you?" Fred said.

"Er... yes." Harri said.

"That means you're muggleborn!" said the other boy. "What's it like?"

"Er..."

"You have ekeltricity, right?" said Fred. "Dad said it was lightning that goes through wires. How does that work?"

"It is... but I don't know how it works. I'm only eleven."

"And what keeps airplanes up?" the other one asked.

"Wings," said Harri. "Just like birds, only they don't flap. What's your name?"

"I'm George Weasley. And he's Fred. We have two more brothers around here somewhere. One of them is in your year," George said.

"Oy, Ron! Wanna meet Harri Evans?" Fred called.

* * *

It turned out that Ron did not want to meet Harri, which was just fine. She got out her copy of _Hogwarts: A History_ and read about the Houses, trying to figure out how the Sorting was done. Aunt Lily said it was a secret, but Charlie had hinted that she had found out.

All Harri could learn from the book was that the four Houses were associated with the four elements: Gryffindor for fire, Hufflepuff for earth, Ravenclaw for air, and Slytherin for water. She thought about what sort of element was most like her. She didn't think she was very fiery, even though Charlie wanted them both to be in Gryffindor. When she thought of gardening, it was all about earth and water and air. And that meant she probably wouldn't be in the same House as her cousin. 

_But we'll still be friends, won't we?_

Harri suddenly held very still as she saw a toad hop into her compartment. It must be somebody's pet! But she didn't have any sort of box to keep it in. She waited until the toad came all the way in, and then she slowly closed the door to keep it from getting out. Once that was done, she emptied her rucksack onto the seat and scooped up the toad and slipped it inside. There should be enough air inside it, but she left the zipper partly open just in case. She thought of going to look for the toad's owner, but then she'd have to leave all of her stuff just sitting out on the seat, and it included her really nice embroidery linen. She didn't think anyone would steal it, but it might get knocked on the floor or get food stains on it if someone was careless with it. So she put the rucksack on the table and waited for someone to come looking for a missing toad. 

It happened about an hour into the journey. A shy boy that she remembered from the platform came in and asked. "Yes! I caught a toad, and it's in my rucksack. Do you want to look and see if it's yours?" Harri asked.

The boy looked in her rucksack, and took out the toad, happily exclaiming, "Trevor! Thank you!"

"You're welcome," Harri said. "I know if it was my pet, I'd want someone to keep it from getting more lost."

"My name is Neville Longbottom," he said.

"I'm Harri Evans," she said. 

"Charlie Potter's cousin?" he said, sounding surprised. "I thought you'd be with her."

"I'll find her later," Harri said. "She has lots of friends, and I got overloaded. I don't think any of them want to talk about gardening."

"You like gardening?" Neville said, his face brightening.

"It's my favourite. That and embroidery, and baking," Harri said. "All the women in my family have flower names. My grandmother's name was Rose, and my Mum is Petunia."

"Harriet isn't a flower."

"My middle name is Larkspur. And then there's my Aunt Lily, and Charlie's middle name is Jasmine," Harri said. "So my garden has all of those flowers in them. Only I didn't know until last month why Mum wanted lilies and jasmine in the garden. I'd never met Aunt Lily and cousin Charlie before. I guess they didn't want to tell me about magic unless I was a witch. I'm still not sure I am."

"You never did accidental magic?" Neville said.

"I don't think so," Harri said. She didn't mention speaking to snakes. She had promised. "Maybe they'll decide I'm really a muggle and send me home."

"I'm almost a squib," Neville confessed. "I didn't do accidental magic until I was eight, and my Uncle Algie dropped me out a window. I bounced. Everyone was so pleased. But I've barely done anything since then."

"You got a Hogwarts letter though," said Harri. "My Aunt Lily said that was only for witches and wizards."

The trolley witch showed up then, and Harri and Neville both purchased lunch and snacks. 

"Do you know what House you want to be in?" Harri asked Neville.

"My Gran says I should go to Gryffindor, like my Dad," said Neville. "What about you?"

"Er..." Harri said. She was looking at Neville and thinking he didn't seem very fire elemental to her. "I think Hufflepuff. It represents the element of earth, and that's what I'm closest to. Charlie wants Gryffindor, like her Mum and Dad, and she'll probably get it, but I don't think it would fit me."

"You really _want_ Hufflepuff?" said Neville.

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I?" Harri asked.

"It's just that Hufflepuff has a reputation for being the House for leftovers. Gryffindor for the brave, Ravenclaw for the smart, Slytherin for the ambitious, and Hufflepuff for everyone else."

Harri crossed her arms. "Hufflepuff for the hard-working, just like it takes to make a garden! And I don't mind being 'everyone else'. I'm muggleborn, I'm going to get a hard time anyway."

"Not from me," Neville said. "I think you're really nice. You didn't have to catch Trevor for me."

Harri smiled. "Yes I did."

* * *

Eventually, Charlie found her and dragged her to a compartment full of girls. "Harri, I thought we were going to sit together! This is Susan Bones, and Parvati and Padma Patil, and Lavender Brown, and Tracie Davis, and Millicent Bulstrode, and Luna Lovegood."

Harri tried her best to remember the names - at least it was just girls her age this time, rather than students of various ages and their parents, like it had been on the platform. "Hi, I'm Harri Evans. And this is Neville Longbottom. I found his toad."

For some reason, this made the girls break out into giggles again.

"You have a lot of wrackspurts," said Luna. "Is it because of all of the cosmetic charms in here?"

"Er... no, I don't care if people want to look pretty. That's just not me."

"Well obviously," said Lavender.

"Lavender! That's my cousin!" Charlie said.

"So? She could still stand to do something about her cheekbones," Lavender said.

"Why?" Luna said. "They're in her cheeks aren't they?"

"Its just that you're so obviously... muggleborn," Tracie said. "That hair band..."

"I'm not going to pretend to be anything else," Harri said. "Charlie's Mum is muggleborn too."

"Well, yes, but Lady Potter is a war heroine," Lavender said. "And she's Charlie's Mum besides."

"And Harri is Lady Potter's niece and my cousin," Charlie said stoutly. "And if she wants to look muggleborn, she can! There's nothing wrong with that!"

Harri gave her cousin a grateful smile.

"I think first generation magicals happen when Lady Magic chooses new vessels," Luna said. "That means you must have something special to offer."

 _Like snake talking,_ Harri thought. But she didn't say aloud.

There was a knock on the compartment door, and when it opened, three boys were standing there. The pale, pointed one in the centre said. "Is it true? That Charlotte Potter is in this compartment?"

Charlie stood up and held out her hand, not to shake, but so that the boy could lift it to his knuckles and kiss. "My name is Malfoy. Draco Malfoy."

Tracie and Harri were the only ones who giggled, thinking it was a James Bond reference. The rest of the girls seemed to think this was a normal introduction.

"This is Crabbe, and Goyle," the boy continued, introducing his companions, but without their first names. 

Charlie gestured around the compartment, introducing everyone, but by their last names only. "Bones, Patil, Patil, Brown, Davis, Bulstrode, Lovegood, my cousin, Harriet Evans, and Longbottom."

Despite having being given a slightly longer introduction than the rest, she could tell that the boy wasn't impressed. He looked over her muggle attire, from her headband to her trainers, with a sneer. "Nice to meet you, Potter."

"You as well, Malfoy. I'll see you at Hogwarts." 

Once the door closed, Lavender Brown gasped, "That was Lucius Malfoy's son! He was a follower of You-Know-Who!"

"I know," Charlie said. "I know who all the Death Eaters were." Her mood seemed to have plummeted, and though the other girls continued to chatter and giggle, Charlotte was quiet. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon!Ron Weasley: Doesn't know what a Death Eater or the Dark Mark is until year 4.  
> Canon!Harry Potter: Doesn't ever look up anything about the war in which his parents died, despite being obsessed with Voldemort.  
> Author: My Girl-Who-Lived has learned everything about the war. She knows whose in Azkaban and why, and she knows who got away with the Imperious claim.  
> Author: Lily Potter didn't raise no fool!


	6. Sorting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Students are sorted!

Luna knew that Charlie Potter's girl gang didn't really like her. They only included her because they felt sorry for her. Susan's aunt had been there in the aftermath of her Mum's death, and since then, Susan had made an effort to be friends.

It was just that none of them seemed to ever notice anything! They insisted that wrackspurts and nargles weren't real. They nattered on about how to sculpt eyebrows and cheekbones and lip outlines. They debated the new fashions in robes - open wrists vs close wrists, V neck vs scoop. They discussed what music they liked. And none of them noticed that Millicent felt ostracised by their beauty talk because she felt ugly, or that Tracey Davis feared she was too poor to buy the newest fashions, or that Padma Patil was bored with it all and just wanted to read. 

It became more interesting when Charlie fetched her cousin Harri and Neville Longbottom. Neville didn't see everything, like she did, but he did notice people. He was kind. He only needed more of a push to be brave enough to stand up for his kindness - but perhaps a compartment full of giggling girls wasn't the right environment for that.

And Harri Evans. She was different still. Defiantly muggleborn, hiding a secret, and then there was her magic, which wasn't bursting and sparking out of her like it was most of the first years. It was completely inside her, quiet and still. Luna wondered what it would be like when it finally emerged. Would it be a whisper or a roar?

* * *

The first years were called to the boats, and Charlie skipped over to Harri. "We have to get the same boat!" the exuberant girl said. And then Harri looked, almost desperately, towards Neville and Luna. 

Luna spoke up then, since she knew Neville wouldn't. "Come along, Neville."

"But..." Neville said. Luna took his hand, and pulled him to the boat with the two cousins, before any of Charlie's friends could claim the last two seats.

At least Charlie didn't seem to mind. She only suggested that Harri take out her camera. "I've been to Hogwarts before, but she's so beautiful - you'll want a picture for your Mum."

Even Charlie gasped when Hogwarts rose into view. Luna wondered if she'd never seen Hogwarts from the lake. She really was beautiful this way. Harri took a couple of pictures, then put her camera down and just absorbed the magic. They all felt it. Even Charlie Potter seemed affected by Lady Hogwarts calling her children to her.

When they ducked their heads to go into a tunnel in the cliffside, Charlie spoke up. "Harri... nobody is supposed to tell the first years about the Sorting, but I know a little about it. And they go alphabetically. You'll go first."

"Er... I don't think they'll put me in Gryffindor. I'm sorry," Harri said.

Charlie gave Harri a half-hug, while still stooped over. "I kind of figured, the more I got to know you. But we'll still be friends. I promise! Just try not to get in Slytherin. Not because I'll like you any less! But they aren't very nice to muggleborns there."

"So the Sorting takes your choices into account?" Harri said.

"Sometimes," Charlie said. "If there is a choice between more than one House, you might get a choice. I shouldn't say more."

"Do you have to do magic? Only I don't know any yet." Harri said.

"No, nothing like that," Charlie said. 

"I heard you had to fight a monster," Neville said.

"It doesn't hurt, I promise!" Charlie said.

"If everyone keeps it a secret from first years, how do you know that you know the truth?" Luna asked. And that left Charlie wide-eyed and scared for the first time.

* * *

They were placed in alphabetical order, by a stern older witch, then led into the Great Hall. When a battered old hat was placed on a stool in front of them, Charlie Potter relaxed. Apparently this was the story she had been told. Luna wondered who had broken the code of silence.

The hat sang a song. Luna wasn't listening. She didn't really think it would matter what House she was in. She would still be lonely. And it was much more interesting staring at the ceiling sky than listening to a song.

"Abbot, Hannah!" The first girl in their year was called. Luna paid a little more attention, to how the hat seemed to call out instantly for some people, and others would sit and ponder for awhile. 

"Bones, Susan!" She went to Hufflepuff. Luna clapped for her.

"Bulstrode, Millicent!" went to Slytherin. Luna clapped for her as well. She didn't like the wrackspurts that congregated whenever the word 'Slytherin' was mentioned. Why would Millicent's friends think less of her just because of what House she went to?

She was glad that "Davis, Tracey," went to Slytherin as well, so Millicent wouldn't be alone.

"Evans, Harriet!" That was the first person from their boat to be called, so Luna paid extra attention. The hat barely touched Harri's blonde hair before calling out "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Charlie cheered and clapped for her cousin, and Luna didn't think she was trying to embarrass her. She just didn't realise that Harri didn't want to be the centre of attention. Because Charlie had always, always, been the centre of attention since she defeated the Dark Lord. Charlie didn't know any different. 

And that's when Luna made up her mind. Though it turned out to be more difficult than she thought.

First she said to Neville, "Hufflepuff is getting a lot of good students," to see if it made some of his wrackspurts go away. And it did! Not all of them, but she was so proud of herself. Especially when he was sorted into Hufflepuff a few minutes later.

Then "Lovegood, Luna," was next. The hat went onto her head and covered half of her face.

 _Hello, little Moon,_ a voice said in her head.

 _Hello, Mr Hat,_ Luna said back. _May I go to Hufflepuff please?_

 _I'm not entirely sure that's best for you._ The hat said. _You have a lot of Air Element in you. I was thinking Rowena's House for you._

_I'm never going to fit in anywhere. Nobody can see everything that I do, and they all think I'm strange. But several of the people who have been kind to me are in Hufflepuff._

_And you will be loyal to your friends - I see it in you. Very well -_ "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Luna joined Harri, Susan, and Neville at the Hufflepuff table. And as the sorting continued, she realised that everyone was excited to find out where the Girl-Who-Lived was going to go.

Luna thought this would be about as quick as Harri's sorting, but it seemed to take several minutes, with Charlie's face screwed up in concentration, before the hat finally called out "GRYFFINDOR!" Maybe Charlie had been trying to convince it to put her in Hufflepuff as well? But Luna thought Charlie made a much better Lion.

So did the Gryffindor table - the Weasley twins were shouting "We've got Potter! We've got Potter!" and Parvati and Lavender were happy to welcome her to their House.

Luna thought everything had gone very well indeed.

* * *

When the feast started, she noticed Harri having trouble with the food, and then she realised that Harri was trying to avoid eating meat. "We can talk to Professor Sprout tonight, and she'll make sure you get vegetabilist meals," Luna said to her.

"Vegetarian," Harri corrected. "Thank you."

At one point, Harri suddenly put her hand over her heart, and said "Ouch!"

"What?" Neville asked.

"Who is that black-haired teacher, next to the one with the turban?" Harri asked in a shaky voice. Luna could see that the man was staring at Harri with intense loathing.

One of the older students answered. "That's Professor Snape, the Potions teacher, and Head of Slytherin House. He doesn't like anyone but his own students."

"I think he really doesn't like me," Harri said, thinking she would have to talk to her Aunt Lily about him at some point. 

* * *

Dearest Papa,

I miss you more than ever. Hogwarts is as beautiful as you and Mama said. I met Harri Evans and Neville Longbottom, and the three of us sorted into Hufflepuff. I had to argue with the Hat, but I'm glad I did. I think its placement gives it the fewest wrackspurts and nargles of anywhere in the castle. There are hanging plants all over the common room, and the prefects assured us we'll have sunlight in the morning - not like the Slytherin dungeons, though we are in the basement. 

My first class tomorrow is Language and Magic with Professor Pettigrew. The prefect said that the first class they will test what languages we know, but that everyone has to learn Latin. And we can study up to two other languages. What do you think of Swedish? Do you think he will know it? Maybe he gets assistants in to teach other languages.

I need to finish this letter so that Princess Margaret can bring it to you. Don't forget to give her a biscuit!

I love you so much.

Luna

* * *

Luna rolled up her letter and sealed it, and handed it to the 7th year girl who was collecting all the firstie letters to take to the owlery. "Mine isn't an owl. She's a feral pigeon, with the most beautiful black and white markings on her head. Her name is Princess Margaret."

"A... pigeon..." the girl with blue hair said. "And she can take the mail?"

"Oh yes. I found her wounded three years ago, and Papa and I healed her. She can't carry packages, but she can carry letters. She's ever so smart."

"Okay... pigeon named Princess Margaret..." Luna could see the girl was committing it to memory, and was pleased. "Who is next?"

Harri stepped up. "This one goes to a snowy owl named Hedwig."

The girl memorised this, then collected mail from Susan, whose owl was a barn owl named Hunter. Then the other girls in their dorm, Hannah and Megan, were using school owls.

"Okay! I'm off to send your mail!" the girl said. "The prefects will be in soon to give you the rules."

"You're not a prefect?" Megan Jones asked. She was a muggleborn. It was good that Harri wouldn't be the only one in their year.

"Ha! Me? Never! I just volunteered to take your mail." the girl, who now had green hair said. "I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow. My name's Dora Tonks."

* * *

After she left, Luna clambered up on the bed where Harri was hugging her knees and looking out the window at the stars. 

"You miss your Mum," Luna said. "I miss my Papa too." Then she tilted her head. "Of course I miss my Mum too. But she's dead. So I don't miss her more at Hogwarts than I did at home."

"I'm sorry about your Mum," Harri said. 

"I'm sorry you don't know your Papa," Luna said.

"How did you know that?" Harri asked.

Luna bit her lip. "The nargles said so. When I talk about Papa, there's an empty place in your heart."

"Mum said she was at a festival. His name was John. She didn't even get his last name," Harri said bitterly. Luna thought she didn't know which parent she was angrier at. "Suddenly, me." She chuckled. "Maybe he was even a wizard. I'll never know."

"Maybe he was. And the war got him before he could find your Mum again," Luna said. 

"Stupid war," Harri grumbled. "Stupid magic. I wish I was at home."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon!Sorting: 1/4 of students are Slytherin  
> Canon!Sorting: "They look like an unpleasant lot"  
> Canon!Quidditch: All three houses root against Slytherin  
> Canon!House Cup: All three houses root against Slytherin  
> Author: Wow... it's SUCH a surprise that Slytherin students joined a Dark Lord who promised them respect and loyalty... NOT!
> 
> Fun facts: Princess Margaret is based on a feral pigeon (rock dove) that visits our bird feeder regularly. We never had to nurse her back to health, but we call her Madge. She's beautiful! Feral pigeons come in all colours and variations because they used to be domesticated before humans switched over to chickens.   
> [More about Feral Pigeons](https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/birds/feral-pigeon-flying-rat-or-urban-hero/)


	7. Language

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter Pettigrew teaches.

Peter Pettigrew slid into his seat at the Great Table, next to Lily Potter. They were silent in comfortable familiarity as they watched the prefects herd the first years into the Great Hall for breakfast. Both of them had their eyes on the Gryffindor table. Charlie was surrounded by friends. She had Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, both of whom had been friends for years, but she seem to have collected another girl whose bushy hair was up in a scrunchie that proclaimed her to be a muggleborn. Charlie looked up briefly, waved at her Mum, then turned back to her friends.

Peter reached out and took Lily's hand. "I miss him too," he said quietly. James would have been so proud of his little Gryffindor. Then he looked over at the Hufflepuff table, where Josie _(no, Harriet, must remember her name is Harriet)_ was entering with her own group of friends. He was one of the few people who was trusted with the knowledge that Charlie Potter had a twin. Of those who knew, most of them thought that Josephine Potter had died when Voldemort attacked Godric Hollow. Peter was one of the few who knew about Josie's emigration to the muggle world, and now return to the magical world. 

He wondered if either of the girls were forming friendships that would last as long as the Marauders had. If it hadn't been for the war, they'd be friends still. If it hadn't been for the war, and the Black madness...

Sirius had been in Azkaban ever since he'd accused Peter of betraying the Potters to Voldemort. Even after Peter vanished his shirt so that Sirius could see his bare arms, even after he had told him that he had never been the Secret Keeper, the curses had kept flying, and three muggles were killed. 

_He didn't even stop to get an explanation. Didn't even try to disarm or disable me. Just went straight for the kill._

That betrayal stung worse than anything. That Sirius could think him capable of such treachery was bad enough. That he could be so sure of it that he wouldn't even listen, was worse than all. 

Peter rubbed the stump of the finger that had gotten cursed off that day, and counted himself lucky. Sirius had been a deadly duellist, and only Peter's small animagus form had saved him. 

"Something wrong, Peter? I've asked you three times to pass the marmalade." It was Professor Sprout, his favourite colleague, for all that he had been a lion.

"Woolgathering, Pomona," Peter said, and passed it to her. "Just wondering if we were ever that small."

"And ever had that much energy," Pomona agreed. "The thoughts recur every first-day. But I guess this is a special one for you, isn't it?"

"It is," Peter agreed, and watched Charlie hold court at the Gryffindor table. "How are your new Hufflepuffs?"

"I got a good bunch. Three muggleborns - I do so love my muggleborns. Longbottom and Evans started asking about the hanging plants right off. Several of them are homesick. Of course that's better than the alternative. But they are all making friends. I don't see any loner problems. I was a little afraid for the Lovegood girl - I remember how bullied her father was in school - but she's latched onto Evans and Longbottom, or they've latched onto her." Pomona turned to her other side. "Severus, how are your Slytherins."

"Tolerable," was all Professor Snape answered in a bored voice.

"He won't answer you in front of me," Peter said cheerfully. "But I'm just leaving. Good morning, Pomona, Lily." 

* * *

Peter's Language and Magic classroom had a normal set up of desks in the centre, but around the perimeter of the room, the castle had helped him set up multiple study nooks, each with a portrait. 

As the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors piled into his classroom exuberantly, he noticed Charlie made a point of finding Harri and sitting with her. Harri looked helplessly at her friend Lovegood, who simply smiled and claimed Neville Longbottom. 

_(Longbottom - another family that was under the Fidelius. We don't know how it was broken for them either.)_ Before Voldemort had attacked the Potters, he had attacked the Longbottoms, leaving them alive, but mentally incapacitated. The only witness to that attack had been Neville himself, who was somehow left alive. 

"Can anyone tell me why Latin is important for wixen?" Pettigrew started his lesson, once he was sure everyone was in the classroom. _(He never started class with roll call. He could do that at the end.)_

A muggleborn girl had her hand stretched to the sky. Peter pointed at her. "Yes, Miss..."

"Granger, sir. Latin is important because many spells are created from Latin words."

"Yes, and no, Miss Granger. Spells _are_ created from Latin words, but why?"

Miss Granger looked devastated to have gotten an answer even partly wrong. Peter would have to check up on her later. It wasn't good for a child to be so dependant on praise from teachers.

"Mr..."

"MacMillan. Our magical heritage goes back to the Roman Empire. Though there were magical people in Britain before that, they were not wand users, and primarily depended on ritual magic. That type of magic was not as flexible on the battlefield, and so the Roman battle mages prevailed."

"Take a point for Hufflepuff. Not all types of magic depends on wands - you will be learning Herbology, Astrology, and Potions this year, and other types of magic in your 3rd year depending on your electives. But wand based magic is highly dependant on language. In your NEWTs years - that's 6th and 7th years - you will begin learning non-verbal casting - but even with that, most wizards find they are chanting the incantation in their head. It takes a very powerful wizard indeed to bypass language and work their will upon the forces of magic to create the effect they wish without thinking or speaking the words.

"But that is many years in your future, and for now, we will learn Latin. You also have the option of learning up to two languages of your choice."

He waited for someone to ask. Someone always did. 

"Sir, what languages do we have to choose from?" a Hufflepuff boy asked.

"Your name?"

"Finch-Fletchly."

"Well, Mr Finch-Fletchly, I don't have a complete list."

"Can you teach Russian?" Something about the boy's demeanour told Peter that this was a serious request, and not a 'test the teacher' question.

"Me? No. I specialise in the Romance languages, which include those derived from Latin, such as French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. I also have a smattering of Welsh, Irish, and Scottish Gaelic, and I'm passable in British Sign Language. However... Lady Benedicta?" He turned to the portrait behind him. "Do we have a Russian tutor available?"

"Certainly. Matvey or Rurik are both willing to teach their language," the woman in the portrait said.

"Excellent. There are 2,863 portraits in this castle, covering a period of a thousand years, including native speakers from all over the world. We have more knowledge available to us than we could ever possibly absorb. Mr Finch-Fletchly, why do you want to learn Russian?"

"My mother heads a think tank that is exploring business and educational opportunities in the breakaway Soviet republics. But I imagine there are magical archives in those countries as well."

"I know most of you didn't understand what he said at all." He waved an illusory map into existence in front of the classroom. "For the magic-raised, ever since Grindelwald's defeat, there has been a near ban on travel to Russia and certain Eastern European countries. This has not been due to the decisions of the magical governments, because there has been no magical government to speak of East of this line." He drew a line that roughly corresponded to the Iron Curtain. "Does anyone know why?"

No one raised a hand.

"That's okay, this is Language, not History. But History is important - my advice is to skip Binns' class and study with a portrait. Anyway, Grindelwald violated the Statute of Secrecy so badly that Obliviation in some places was not possible. Stalin was a muggle Dark Lord - and never ever believe that muggles can't be Dark Lords - who did not want to share power with a magical government. He rounded up magicals and they were murdered or sent to the gulags. And when he was done, there was no Ministry of Magic left in Russia." He jabbed his wand, and Russia went dark. "No Ministry of Magic in the Ukraine." Another dark spot. "The Polish ministry went underground." He coloured Poland grey. He went through the map, colouring countries as he named them. 

The class was utterly silent.

"Never think that Christians held the only witch hunts. Magical families were utterly wiped out in these countries. There are still magical communities, extremely well hidden. There are still muggleborns that appear within their populations, and there are heroic efforts to smuggle these children out of danger. Now, perhaps, there is hope that the ICW can establish a new magical government in the region, to protect and defend the magicals of Russia and Eastern Europe."

Peter smiled at Mr Finch-Fletchly. "If there are magical archives, they will either be very well protected by the remaining magicals, or in deeply classified muggle government archives. But either way, they will not have been seen by Western eyes for half a century. It would be a worthy quest."

* * *

He held roll at the end of the class, then sent them out. It was a darker lesson than usual, but he always made a point of teaching it at some point during the first year. They needed to know about Grindelwald and Stalin, and Dumbledore was never going to replace Binns. The staff tried to argue him into hiring a proper history teacher every year. Dumbledore merrily proclaimed that Binns was part of the 'experience' of Hogwarts, and had been even when he was a boy. Which, to Pettigrew's mind, only made it the more obvious that he needed replacing. If he had died before Dumbledore started at Hogwarts, then his information was more than a century out of date. And it had been a rather eventful century.

So he slid history into his Language lessons when he could, taught them that portraits were full of knowledge, and encouraged them to skip Binns' class. And if there was an empty classroom near the History of Magic classroom chock full of exactly those portraits who were most interested in teaching history, Peter could honestly say he'd never been in there. After all, house elves are extremely helpful to anyone - but especially those who are kind to them.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Muggle History: Stalin existed  
> Canon: There is a Russian school of magic  
> Author: ....  
> Author: Nope. Does not compute.


	8. The M Word

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Professor Potter tackles bullying pre-emptively.

There were things that Hermione noticed about Charlie Potter that weren't in any of her biographies. When she entered a room, she studied all the people in it, and the possible exits before choosing her seat. She knew her way around the castle, perfectly. She waved her hand in a certain pattern over her food and drink, and glanced at a ring she wore, before consuming anything. Even anything as small as a Chocolate Frog. 

Then there were the things that were in all the biographies. Her favourite colour was pink. She loved Quidditch. She wanted to be an Auror when she grew up. Her life's dream was a world with no discrimination between pure-blood and muggleborn. 

She was friends with everyone. When Hermione had been sorted last night, she had sat at the Gryffindor table, feeling scared and lonely, until the sorting got to the P's, and Charlie Potter joined the table. Then Charlie sat between her own long-time friends Lavender and Parvati and Hermione and Fay Dunbar, and begun making introductions, as if she was the hostess of the Opening Feast. 

Charlie was a mystery, and Hermione didn't understand her. 

* * *

Hermione and the other Gryffindors were discussing their language choices. Charlie was going with French and Portuguese. Parvati was continuing with Hindustani, which she and Padma had been taught by their grandmother. Ron Weasley snorted and said "Didn't you know? It's optional. Only Latin is required."

Hermione gasped. "Why would you turn down the option to learn if you could?"

"Who wants all the extra homework?" Ron said.

Ron's brother Percy said, "Multilingual applicants are much more favoured at the ministry. It helps so much when speaking to our international counterparts. And in other jobs as well. So I took French and Spanish, and now I'm working on Arabic. Our eldest brother learned Gobbledygook, and went on to work as a curse breaker for Gringotts. Charlie took Romanian so he could go to the dragon sanctuary."

"What about George and Fred?" Parvati asked.

"British Sign Language and American Sign Language, which are totally different. They use BSL to talk to deaf students, and ASL when they want to be sneaky with each other because almost no one here knows it," Percy said. 

"Hey! No giving away our secrets!" George protested.

"Ron doesn't want to take a second language," Percy said.

"Ron, take a second language," Fred said. "Mum would want you to."

"I'm not going to work in the Ministry! I'm going to be a Quidditch player!" Ron said.

Charlie moved over to sit down next to Ron. "Okay, let's say you do. You're first string for for the Tornados -"

"Chudley Cannons," Ron interrupted.

"Oooookay. So you rescue the Cannons from their shame at the bottom of the league tables. You get called upon for autographs wherever you go. Now you get asked to play for England and go to the World Cup. But when you get to the stadium in an amazing location, you can only speak to your own teammates because you never bothered to learn another language. The press makes fun of you. One tongue Weasley, they'll call you. And your teammates are busy impressing the fangirls and fanboys because they can speak to the locals."

Ron screwed up his face. "Fine! I'll learn another language! What's the most popular one?"

"Do you mean the most popular one at Hogwarts, or the one spoken by the most people worldwide?" Percy asked.

"Worldwide. That'll be the most likely to be useful when I'm playing for England," Ron said.

"Mandarin Chinese," Charlie said. 

"Er..."

"Spanish is the second, and doesn't require learning a new alphabet," Percy said, guessing what the problem was. "And it's also a popular Hogwarts subject, so you'll have people to study with."

"Okay, I'll take Spanish," Ron said, marking it down.

"What are you going to take, Hermione?" Charlie asked. 

"Why are you learning French and Portuguese?" Hermione asked.

"I might take a study year abroad in my 6th year, between OWLs and NEWTs. One of the schools I might choose is in Brazil, and another is in France," Charlie said carelessly. Hermione was quite sure this was not at all a careless decision. _It's like knowing the exits to a room. She has an exit plan for Hogwarts._

"That sounds interesting. And I already know a bit of French already," Hermione said. "My parents like to go to France on holiday. And a study year at another school sounds amazing." She put down French and Portuguese.

Lavender and Fay signed up for French. Dean and Seamus for Spanish. 

_Let the gender wars begin,_ Hermione thought.

* * *

When she walked into Magical Theory later that morning, another class that the Gryffindors shared with Hufflepuff, she flinched when she entered the room. On the board, written in giant letters was the word 

## MUDBLOOD

Hermione flung her bag down at one of the desks and went to erase the offending word, but she couldn't remove it. 

One by one, students entered the classroom, saw the word, and either gasped, or snickered, or reacted in some way or another. The muggleborns gathered in one corner of the classroom, murmuring about how awful it was. It wasn't just Professor Potter that was attacked, but they had been as well. The sympathetic students collected around them, shielding them from the giggles and sneers of those who thought the word was funny.

Charlie Potter said nothing. Hermione thought that was odd.

At 11:30 exactly, the door slammed shut of its own accord, and then Professor Potter appeared out of thin air in the front of the classroom. _Of course. She's been watching us the whole time._ Hermione realised.

"Five points to Miss Granger for trying to remove the offending word," Professor Potter said. "There is a saying that those of us who grew up in the muggle world are familiar with. 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.'" She looked around the classroom. "That phrase is complete bollocks." 

If Potter didn't have their attention from the door slam and the appearance trick, the swearing in front of a class certainly did it. You could have heard a pin drop.

"Words hurt. Words damage. This word," She pointed to the blackboard, "Is offensive and disgusting." Professor Potter raised her wand in her right hand and aimed it at her left arm. " _Diffindo."_ A slicing hex cut her arm open, from wrist to elbow, leaving her blood dripping down onto the floor.

"That is my blood. Ernie MacMillan, will you come to the front?" Ernie did so, and seemed to know what was coming, for he held out his arm. " _Diffindo."_ The cut this time was only a couple of inches long, but it bled freely.

"Mr MacMillan is a pure-blood wizard, with ancestry that goes back to the time of the Battle of Hastings. I am a first generation witch. And as you can see, our blood looks _exactly the same."_ She touched her wand to Ernie's cut. " _Episkey._ Twenty points to Hufflepuff, Mr MacMillan. Thank you for your help."

"You're welcome, Professor Potter. But you should stop your own arm from bleeding." Ernie said.

Professor Potter glanced at her own badly bleeding arm, as if it was nothing more than a papercut. "Oh yes. _Episkey."_

 _Charlie's mom is a badarse..._ Hermione thought, as she looked at the large puddle of blood that the woman had shed without the slightest grimace of pain.

"The first time anyone says this word, anywhere at Hogwarts, you will get a week's detention. The second time, you will get a fortnight's suspension. The third time, there will be an educational trip to the muggle world."

She waved her wand at the board, and the word Mudblood was replaced with

## DEATH EATER

"I have heard this word used to attack other students. The Blood War ended ten years ago. That means even the oldest students in the castle were no more than seven years old when the Dark Lord was destroyed. I assure you, he was not recruiting children who were not even old enough to carry wands legally. There is not one student at Hogwarts that deserves to be called this name, no matter what their parents did during the war. If this word is used in the castle to attack anyone else, you will have the same punishments. A week's detention for the first offense. A fortnight's suspension for the second offense. For the third offense, an educational pensieve session where you will see a real meeting between the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters."

There were actually several screams. "You can't do that!" It was Seamus Finnegan. "You can't make us look at... at You-Know-Who!"

"I can. I will. I already have the approval of the Board of Governors. If you don't want to see it, then don't name-call."

* * *

Hermione took notes through the rest of Professor Potter's class, but she wasn't sure that most of the student's were paying attention after that. After class, she had to look up what a pensieve was to see what had everyone so bothered. And even then, she didn't quite get it.

"I don't understand. Why would everyone be so scared to see Vol-"

"Don't say the name!" Charlie said. "It freaks everyone out if you do."

"But it's just a name!"

"I know that. _You_ know that. But is it worth it to have everyone around you freaking out and refusing to listen to you? Unless you _want_ to scare people, just say You-Know-Who or the Dark Lord."

"So why are people scared to look at him? It's history, right? And she wouldn't make them look at something gruesome like a murder, would she?"

"No, Mum wouldn't do that. But by the end, he didn't look human anymore. No one really knows why, but they think it was some effect of the Dark Magics he used. It warped him. And there are also superstitions about him, that if any newspapers or books printed a real photograph of him, he would be able to see through them."

"Oh... that's why there are only a few drawings in the history books, rather than photos. And they mostly have him shadowed." Hermione said.

"Exactly. So people think if they actually see him, in a pensieve, then he'll be able to look at them. It's rubbish of course. I've seen him in pensieve memories, and it didn't make any difference," Charlie said.

"Really? How come?" Hermione asked.

"I asked to see. Mum and Dad fought him twice. The only way I can ever see my Dad is in the pensieve. And I wanted to see him fight," Charlie said. "Dad was an Auror. Mum was working on a Charms Mastery. She wasn't a duellist back then. She only fought next to Dad those two times because she was there when the Dark Lord attacked. Once in Diagon Alley, the other time at Hogsmeade. And the funny thing is, when I saw those memories, I was mostly just amazed at how crap they both were - even my Dad the Auror. Because today, my Mum is the most dangerous fighter I've ever seen."

"So why is your Mum a teacher instead of an Auror?" Hermione asked. But the bell for lunch rang before she got an answer.

* * *

At lunch, Hermione watched Charlie race over to the Hufflepuff table, losing Gryffindor a point for running in the Great Hall from Filch. One of the mysteries about Charlie Potter was her cousin Harri, who wasn't in any of her biographies. Hermione followed her over to Hufflepuff (walking, of course). "Are we allowed to eat at other House tables?"

"At breakfast and lunch, we are. Supper we are supposed to eat with our own House," Charlie said. "Do you want to eat with us? I'll introduce you to everyone!"

And so Hermione met Harri Evans, Luna Lovegood, and Neville Longbottom. When Charlie didn't know the muggleborn girl who was next at the table, she simply said, "And I don't know your name. I'm Charlie Potter. What's your name?"

"Megan Jones," said the girl with pretty dark cornrows. "Is Professor Potter your Mum? She's really brave!"

Charlie looked a little flustered, probably having expected a question about being the Girl-Who-Lived rather than her Mum, but the next moment, she was smiling a thousand watt smile. "Yes! She really is!"

"I don't mean about the blood, though that was pretty attention-getting. But tackling bullying and racial slurs. Nobody ever did that back at St Joseph's Academy. She's a muggleborn, right? So they would have used that word against her when she was in school." Megan said.

"Not just in school. People still use it," Charlie said. "Not much to her face anymore. She's too fast with her wand. But hate mail. Anonymous, of course. She's a public figure, so when the Wizengamot is in session, it's especially bad." Charlie said this while putting a sandwich together, her tone completely matter of fact, as if she was speaking about an irritating excess of junk mail. "Muggleborns who live more private lives face it less, but it's still a concern with apprenticeship and job opportunities."

Megan closed her eyes. "Not so different then."

"From muggle racism?" Charlie asked. "I can't say. For all that I have a muggleborn Mum, I don't know much about the muggle world. All I can say is that Mum is fighting to make it better. Remember, you're just as much a witch as anyone else in this room. You may be first generation, but no one can take your magic from you."

Megan's chin lifted a bit, and Harri Evans smiled at her cousin. 

Hermione didn't say anything, but she felt a little emboldened as well. 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon: Bullying and name-calling is rampant.  
> Lily Evans Potter: *rolls up her sleeves* Challenge Accepted!
> 
> If you're wondering how Professor Potter got permission to tackle name-calling the way she did, the answer is that despite this being her first year as a Hogwarts professor, she's been a political powerhouse since the end of the war and she inherited the Potter regency and a seat on the Board of Governors. Dumbledore does not hold the stranglehold on the Light faction that he did in canon.
> 
> Also, she says 'the Dark Lord' because she thinks it's the most accurate term to use. She won't say Voldemort unless she wants people to scream. She refuses to say 'You-Know-Who' because it sounds stupid. And 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' is the worst one of all in Lily's opinion.
> 
> And if you're wondering if Lily Potter has been doing a Sarah Connor act and training herself to become a serious Auror class fighter since her husband was killed and her daughter thrust into the limelight, the answer is yes. Yes she has.


	9. Dunderheads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus attempts to teach potions.

Severus thought he could have borne having the Evans girl at Hogwarts if she didn't look so much like Petunia. He had packed away those memories long ago, the fights he'd witnessed between the sisters. The fights he'd caused. Lily's tears on the Express, "She thinks I'm a freak." Then a few years later, "I don't care what she thinks. She's just a muggle."

And now, Merlin take them all, Tuney's daughter was a witch. And Lily had assured him that Petunia was okay with it. That Petunia had accompanied them to Diagon Alley. That Petunia told her witch daughter she was proud of her.

But Lily wouldn't meet his eyes when she said it. Not that he would try and read her mind - he knew she had Occlumency shields that were at least strong enough to notice the attempt, if not repel it. But it felt like a general sign of her hiding something from him. Surely she wouldn't stand for her niece being abused. She was protective enough of her daughter.

He remembered the middle of the summer when Lily and Pettigrew had arrived at his lab with a question. Lily had slammed a clear red stone on the workbench in front of him. "I need to know if this is the genuine Philosopher's Stone."

Severus had nearly choked. "You can't be serious."

"Those ridiculous puzzles Albus has had us setting up?" Pettigrew said. "This was to be at the end. An obstacle course to hide the Philosopher's Stone in case someone comes looking for it."

"So those puzzles that he asked us to make challenging enough for a clever second year who had the help of two or three friends?" Severus said. "Were meant to hide one of the most valuable artefacts in the magical world?"

"If it's the real thing," Lily said. "I have my doubts."

"Whether real or false, what is the point?" Severus asked.

"Do you have to ask? My daughter starts this year. He wants to test her! So he wants to dangle an adventure in front of her, with all the fear that if she fails, the Dark Lord will become Immortal!" Lily ranted.

"How sure are you?"

"About him testing Charlie? Very. He forgets that you're not the only spy at Hogwarts." Pettigrew had used his animagus form to spy during the war. Never directly on the Dark Lord - a rat could not safely spy where snakes frequented - but on his followers. And now, apparently, on the Headmaster.

It took three days for Severus to determine that the red stone was crystallised dragon's blood, and not the Philosopher's Stone. And he had the joy of being present when Lily had confronted Dumbledore about his plot to test Charlie Potter. The point where she set his beard on fire would be a treasured pensieve memory for years to come. Lily said that Albus was not her daughter's parent, guardian, or even her teacher. Her Hogwarts professors could set her assignments and exams. Her Head of House had authority over disciplinary matters. Her Headmaster was there as the administrator of the school, and was unlikely to be needed in any sort of direct role in Miss Potter's education or upbringing. 

Albus backed down. Severus didn't blame him. No one could withstand Lily Evans in a righteous anger.

* * *

Severus stalked into his first year Potions class, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. With the Petunia lookalike, sitting there with her blonde hair and horn-rimmed glasses and yellow tie. How had Petunia's child become a Hufflepuff, anyway?

He gave his normal starting lecture, then snapped out his questions. "Miss Evans, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

She looked up at him, terrified. "I don't know, sir."

"Let's try again, Evans. Where would you look if I told you to find a bezoar?"

She bit her lip, looking more like Lily in that moment than Petunia. "I don't know, Sir."

"What is the difference, Evans, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Her face lit up. "They are different names for the same genus of plants, also known as blue rocket or aconite or queen of poisons. Most species are extremely poisonous and have to be handled carefully."

He looked at her with grudging respect. "Very good. At least you know your Herbology."

* * *

When the students paired up, Evans paired with Megan Jones, another muggleborn. Surprisingly, they did not melt their cauldron, though they did not do brilliantly. Evans seemed to understand ingredient prep already, but she was not careful with stirring, and treated it as if she was making soup rather than a potion. 

He could already tell that Longbottom was going to be a problem, though Lovegood rescued a few of his mistakes. MacMillan had obviously prepared potions before, as had Patil and MacDougal. No one else stood out as either good or bad. Just the usual pack of dunderheads. Merlin, he hated teaching. If only he could have followed his dream and been an experimental potioneer. He understood potions too intuitively to find it easy to teach others. It was so hard for him to understand why other people _didn't_ understand. A little _less_ genius on his part might have made him a better teacher.

If only he hadn't taken the Dark Mark. He had regretted it, turned, and spied for the Light, but even after Albus testified for him, the Ministry had decided to inflict additional chains on him in the form of the "community service" of teaching at Hogwarts. (Never mind that other former Death Eaters like Lucius Malfoy walked free with no restrictions. Severus knew that if he had the galleons to spend, he could convince Fudge to rescind his forced servitude.) 

* * *

Two days later, he had first year Potions with Gryffindor and Slytherin.

"Charlotte Potter... our newest celebrity..." he said in a sinister voice.

"Present, sir," she replied, with no sign of being intimidated. He at once began grilling her with advanced potions questions, about half of which she was unable to answer. But unlike her cousin, she was not distressed by answering "I don't know, sir," and just answered his questions or not, as comfortably as if she was chatting away with the press. He finally gave up trying to scare her, and took off points for being 'unprepared', then set them to work. 

Potter and Granger paired off, and Potter was competent enough to make up for Granger being an inexperienced muggleborn. He could tell by the way she handled the equipment that she wasn't one of those who had experience in the kitchen. Loathe as he was to compare the precise art of potioneering with the very imprecise art of cooking food, there were skills that carried over. 

Most of his Slytherins were passable, if not good - Goyle and Crabbe being exceptions, as they melted their cauldron and had to be sent to the hospital wing. The Gryffindors were terrible. Lavender Brown was terrified of him. So was Seamus Finnegan. He took points off of Gryffindor and awarded them to Slytherin.

He sent them all out of the class, and closed the door. He sighed and dropped his 'dungeon bat' mask for a moment. Then he heard a voice say, "Let's talk about how you're going to be changing your teaching style."

* * *

Lily. She was sitting on a table in the back of the classroom, and presumably had been there the whole time. 

"Why?"

"Why did I spy on you? Because I've heard enough rumours about the way you teach, and I wanted to see for myself. And I especially wanted to see how you were going to treat my daughter... daughter and niece," Lily said.

"You were in the Hufflepuff class too?" he asked.

"Of course."

"You were teaching during that time slot," he pointed out.

She laughed. "You have my schedule memorised, Sev?"

"My office," he said curtly. His dungeon bat mask was back on, and she followed him to his office. Where she transfigured the chair opposite his desk and added a pouffe to prop her feet up on. Cheeky.

"So, Sev, you grilled my daughter and niece on topics that aren't even covered this year - and certainly aren't expected to be known on the first day of class. You deliberately set them up to fail in front of their classmates. You then teach by throwing a recipe at them and saying 'go to it', no instructions, no guidance. You gift points to your Slytherins for no reason, and take them from Gryffindors for even less of one. All I can say for you is that you treat the Puffs and Claws fairly in taking points, though you didn't award points to any of them. So what the fuck is up with that?"

"I give my Slytherins points to make up for how they're treated by the rest of the staff," Severus spat out. "If there's an altercation, blame the Slytherin. If the same offence is committed by a Gryffindor and a Slytherin on opposite ends of the castle, the Gryffindor will get a reprimand, the Slytherin detention. You remember the way it was when we were in school? The Lions are still Albus's favourites. If it makes me take more points from them to make a point, that's on his bearded head."

"Fair enough," Lily conceded. "Not exactly fair to the first years who are bearing it, but I'll accept what you're saying for now. What about the rest?"

"What about it? I _hate_ teaching. I never wanted to be a teacher. Maybe if I'm terrible enough at it, they'll release me from my eternal penance and let me complete my absolution for my youth by making potions for the Ministry for the rest of my life," Severus said bitterly. "Not that I believe Albus will ever let me go. He needs me to be his pet Death Eater spy when the war starts up again. And that's why he's _ordered_ me to treat your daughter and niece the way I did. As part of my cover."

Lily stared at him. And then she laughed. It wasn't the carefree laugh of their childhood. It was almost Petunia's laugh, full of malice. "I can promise you, that if there's a 'next war', Albus Dumbledore will not be the general."

Severus met her green eyes and saw the truth of it. Lily Potter hadn't just come to Hogwarts to protect her daughter. She was here to take over.

"The Order of the Lily?" he asked.

"That's a bit grandiose for my style. The Wildflower Association. To the uninitiated, it's simply about Herbology. Are you in?" she asked.

He gave her one of his genuine, rare smiles. "For you, Lily, always."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Albus running around his office in circles with his beard on fire while Lily berates him is my new head canon forever fight me.


	10. Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco hates Potter.

Draco had never thought he'd meet a girl he hated more than Pansy Parkinson, but that was before he met Charlie Potter. At least when Pansy was demanding Draco's attention, she was acknowledging that he was someone worth paying attention to. Charlie Potter went about the castle, in her little cloud of friends, and completely ignored Draco's existence.

He'd heard rumours that she had been training for her entire childhood to become Dumbledore's successor, but Draco could see no signs that she was anything special. She was good in Transfiguration, but only middling in Charms. Draco held the top spot in Potions, and he knew without a doubt that he didn't need his godfather's favouritism to achieve that. Potter did have the top spot in Magical Theory, and Draco was completely sure that was down to her mudblood mother playing favourites. 

At least Draco felt confident going into today's class: Flying. He'd been on a broom since he was small, and he knew he would be able to outfly the daughter of a mudblood. Sure, Potter's father had been a skilled Chaser, but her mother was nothing special, and everyone knew these things went by gender lines. She'd be as terrible as her mother on a broom, and Draco would have the chance to laugh at her.

That would teach _her_ to ignore him!

* * *

When the students arrived on the pitch, they were surprised to see that the brooms lying in neat lines were all brand new. Sure, they weren't racing brooms or anything, just Shooting Stars, but it was far better than anything Draco had been led to expect. He wondered if his father had arranged for a donation. But no, Father would surely have told him.

"As you can see, we had an anonymous donation to the school, under a newly formed Hogwarts Flight Trust that has allowed us to buy new brooms, not only for Flying lessons, but also for the Quidditch teams, which means it won't be the richest team that wins, but the most talented team," Madam Hooch said.

A hand was up, and Hooch said, "Yes, Weasley?"

"What kind of brooms do the teams get?" he asked excitedly.

"Comet brand brooms, specialised for each position," she said. "The trust that made the donation has also arranged for maintenance and repair, and replacement every three years."

"Why is it anonymous?" Parvati Patil asked.

Hooch shrugged. "I don't know. There are many reasons for making anonymous donations. Since I spoke only with a goblin intermediary, I couldn't possibly even begin to speculate."

Draco knew that it wouldn't be Father. The only reason to make a donation anonymous would be if it was something that had to be hidden, such as a donation to a corrupt politician. Making a donation to Hogwarts would be a reason to get lots of good publicity. Father would make sure it would make the front page of the Prophet if it had been him.

* * *

The flying lesson that followed was worse that he could have imagined. First of all, Charlie Potter was _amazing_ on a broom. It made Draco seethe to see it. Secondly, Hooch had the gall to correct his grip and tell him he'd been doing it wrong for years. As if! Clearly she was an incompetent teacher! Thirdly, Crabbe and Goyle had managed to herd the muggleborn Thomas off by himself towards the end of class, only to get caught in the act when they knocked him off his broom. They tried to play it as Thomas falling, but at least three people had seen it happen, and now Crabbe and Goyle were banned from flying until Spring Term. Actually _banned_! That had apparently been one of the terms of the Hogwarts Flight Trust - new safety rules and rules against in-air bullying that had to be enforced, or the donation could be rescinded!

As they were leaving class, he saw a gleam and a smile on Charlie Potter's face, and that's when he knew. _She_ was behind the broom donation. It was _her mother_ making all the waves about anti-bullying, right? And Potter was always doing charity things with her dead Daddy's money. It would be just like her to make a donation to the school and link it to anti-bullying.

 _But why anonymous?_ he wondered. _That's the part I don't understand..._

It didn't matter. Her smirk was all the evidence he needed.

* * *

That night, he approached the Gryffindor table, where Potter was holding court. The other children fell silent, but Potter only raised an eyebrow and him and said, "May I help you, Malfoy?"

"You had something to do with Crabbe and Goyle being banned from flying!" he said.

"Yes," she said. "I told Madam Hooch what I saw. So did Lavender and Ron."

"I'm not talking about that! You're the reason the donation has those anti-bullying rules in it! You're the one who made that donation!"

Potter laughed. "It's a nice thought, but even though I have a pretty large allowance, it's not that large."

"You have the Potter inheritance," Draco said.

"Do your parents let you spend your inheritance already? Because my Mum doesn't. I get allowance. Anyway, shoo. We're eating dinner." 

It was that 'shoo' that enraged him. Malfoys were not 'shooed'. He drew his wand.

"Potter, I challenge you to a wizard's duel!"

* * *

Charlie Potter looked at him for a long moment, with her weird green eyes, and finally, she said, "Very well. You will hear from my second, Hermione Granger. Who is your second?"

Granger made a squeaking noise, then said, "Is this legal?"

Weasley said, "Course it is. Long as you don't use Unforgiveables."

"Crabbe is my second," Draco said, and he snarled and stomped off.

* * *

The next morning, a school owl landed in front of Crabbe, with a letter written on that weird lined stuff that some muggles used instead of parchment.

> _Dear Crabbe,_
> 
> _As Miss Potter is unwilling to apologise to Mr Malfoy for the offence of... well, I'm not sure what the offence was. That's probably why she won't apologise. So anyway, since Miss Potter is unwilling to apologise, please inform Mr Malfoy that he is to withdraw his challenge, or be prepared to meet Miss Potter on the field of honour under the Beech Tree by Black Lake at 3pm tomorrow. As the challenged, she has chosen the weapon, which is the Super Soaker. If Mr Malfoy does not possess a Super Soaker, one will be provided for him. The Super Soaker may only be filled with plain water. The duel will end when both Super Soakers are empty or when either party yields._
> 
> _Please accept or refuse this challenge by return of owl today._
> 
> _Regards,_
> 
> _Hermione Granger_

"What in Salazar's name is a Super Soaker?" Draco asked.

Tracy Davis's eyes lit up. "It's a muggle thing that shoots water! It's amazing! We had them at Charlie's birthday party this year!"

"It. Shoots. Water." Draco said. "What is the point of something that shoots water?"

"It's fun!" Davis said. "Especially when it's hot outside."

"She expects me to fight a duel of honour with a muggle thing that shoots water?" Draco spluttered. "How would you even know who won?"

"You instigated a 'duel of honour' when she hadn't actually insulted you in any way," Daphne Greengrass said coolly. "Besides... duelling as a first year? What did you think was going to happen? You're going to transfigure matches to needles to poke her with?"

"She could have said swords. I'm sure she's been trained in swordsmanship," Draco sulked.

"Malfoy, where is your sword?" Greengrass said.

"At home, in the training chamber... oh." Draco felt his face growing warm. Though... he probably could have convinced Father to send him his sword, via Professor Snape's floo.

"Exactly. I doubt even the Girl-Who-Lived is allowed to bring a sword to school," Greengrass said. "So either admit you have no reason to duel, or play with the muggle thing tomorrow. It did look like fun in the pictures I saw."

"A Malfoy does _not_ fight a duel of honour with a muggle water shooter!" Draco shrieked. "Crabbe, tell Granger that's not acceptable. Tell her no muggle things!"

"Okay," Crabbe said amiably, and he ambled over to the Hufflepuff table, because Potter and her friends couldn't even be normal enough to stick within one house, to tell her. 

He came back a few minutes later, with Granger in tow. 

"If you challenge a duel, the challenged gets to choose the weapons and field. In theory you should withdraw your challenge if you aren't willing to go through with it," Granger said. "Considering you haven't even named a reason for your challenge, that would probably be best."

"It's her fault Crabbe and Goyle were banned from flying," Draco said.

"It's their own fault," Granger said. "They're the one who bullied Dean, and Charlie is not responsible for setting up an anonymous trust worth thousands of pounds."

"I'm not withdrawing my challenge," Draco said stubbornly.

Granger sighed. "She thought you'd say that. I have leave, from her, to change the challenge to a game of wizard chess, in one hour, in the History of Magic classroom."

"Fine!" Draco said.

* * *

Draco did not like playing chess with such a large audience. The classroom was packed full of Slytherins and Gryffindors, as well as a few Hufflepuffs. Every move was scrutinized, and the pieces were shouting advice. The audience had to be reminded several times not to do the same. It was a close fought game.

"Checkmate," Draco said finally.

The black king threw down his crown and wept. Charlie looked at the board with her head tilted. "Ah. Yes. Good move." Then she put out her hand. "Good game, Malfoy. As you have won our duel, I offer you a full apology for any offence I have given you."

* * *

The Slytherins cheered. The Gryffindors booed. Draco accepted her hand. He gathered up his pieces and went to his Common Room to celebrate

But he couldn't help thinking that it would have been a sweeter victory if she'd been less gracious about it! 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School Board full of rich and influential parents: *votes against spending more money on brooms like ever*  
> Author: So... the Board Members don't care if their little snowflakes fall off of a substandard broom on the first day of lessons?  
> JKR: Obviously Hogwarts couldn't afford new brooms.  
> Weasley Family: *has a shed full of generally well working brooms*  
> Author: Ahem....


	11. Parchment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harri and Charlie grow closer. Harri learns about parchment.

Harri didn't understand. Charlie lost the chess game. She was so good at everything! But she lost! And then she apologised, just like that! For what? For nothing! She hadn't done anything wrong! Everyone agreed on that!

She hated Malfoy. She hated him, and she was going to make him pay one of these days. 

It was the day after the stupid duel. She was sitting in the Clock Tower, looking out over the lake, and hugging her doll Polly. Harri was really too old for dolls, but Polly was her first doll, the one her Mum had made for her out of her old clothes, and repaired several times. She had an embroidered face and yarn hair and Harri had packed her at the very last minute, knowing that even if she were too old to _play_ with dolls, she couldn't leave Polly behind.

And after a few minutes, Charlie joined her there, as they'd arranged.

"What's wrong?" Charlie asked.

"Why did you lose?" 

"I didn't mean to lose!" 

"Why did you apologise then?" Harri asked. "He was a total jerk!"

Charlie sighed and sat down next to her. "It's called 'de-escalation'. I didn't want to apologise, believe me. Because I'm the Girl-Who-Lived, and if I lose my temper and start hexing people in school, then it will harm the social standing of the Light. And Malfoy's Dad was a Death Eater who got away with it, and my Mum is Lord Malfoy's main opponent in the Wizengamot. So if I started having fights with Malfoy here in school, then that would mean that Mum and Lord Malfoy might end up duelling over it eventually. And I know Mum would destroy him in a duel, but it would still be bad to force that to happen over a stupid school fight," Charlie said. She fiddled with the edge of her robe. "I hate it so so much. Of all the things that goes on because I'm famous, having to pretend to like people I hate is the absolute worst."

She sniffed, and Harri handed her one of the handkerchiefs she'd embroidered since coming to school, that had a little row of flowers with a blackbird among them. Charlie blew her nose, then noticed the embroidery. "Harri, this is really good!"

"Er... thank you," Harri said. "It's nothing special. There's no tv here, so I'm doing more embroidery here than I did at home. And it's not like it's magical needlepoint. I can't get it to move yet."

"It's still amazing! I can't do anything like this."

Harri was embarrassed, and tried to change the subject.

"Do you know if your Mum was really responsible for the new brooms?"

"Harri?" Charlie said. "Mum has a lot of secrets. Some of them she keeps from me. Some of them she tells me, but I'm not allowed to tell anyone else, not even my best friends or my cousin or Uncle Pete."

"Oh, okay," Harri said. 

"Like me having a cousin at all. That was a secret she kept from me until you had magic. And that was _so stupid_. We could have been friends all our lives if she hadn't kept that a secret," Charlie said.

Harri looked out at the forest. "Your Mum is kind of..."

"Intense? Scary?"

"Yeah. She looks at me like I'm under a microscope," Harri said.

"I don't know what that is," Charlie admitted. "You think she'd have taught me about muggle things before now, but she hasn't. I think I'll take Muggle Studies in year 3."

Harri smiled. "It means when she looks at me, she's very very focused on me. Like she's studying me super carefully."

"Oooh, that look. That's her 'I'm studying a potential threat' look. Don't take it seriously. Everyone is a potential threat until she knows them," Charlie said.

"What? I'm _eleven_! I can't even do magic!" Harri said.

"Of course you can!" 

"I haven't cast a single spell since I got here. Every time I try, it's just... nothing happens."

"You're the top of our year in Herbology, along with Neville. And you do okay in Potions, right?"

"I guess, but that's just following the instructions. Anyone could do that."

"You can't make potions if you don't have magic. If a muggle did it, they'd just get sludge. You put magic into it when you stir. And magical plants don't respond well to muggles. They'll either attack them, or ignore them, but they won't let themselves be repotted and pruned and..." Charlie's hands flapped. "All those things that we do in Herbology. So you're definitely a witch. Even if you're having trouble casting spells."

"Still... it's not like I'm going to murder you with pruning shears or something. Why would your mother think I'm a threat?"

Charlie sighed. "Can I see your doll?" 

Harri realised that she'd been hugging Polly to her chest this whole conversation. "Oh, okay." She handed Polly over to Charlie.

"Did your Mum give this to you?" Charlie asked.

"She made Polly for me," Harri said. Polly had an embroidered face and yarn hair that hung in braids, and a little set of denim overalls.

Charlie danced Polly around by her hands. "My Mum never gave me a doll. I mean, I _had_ dolls, _other_ people gave me dolls. But not Mum. Dolls wouldn't help me survive." Charlie scrunched up her face. "I don't think Mum has thought about anything else since Dad died. It's all about making sure I'm prepared in case someone tries to kill me. Or if the Dark Lord comes back. She tries to categorise everyone into either someone who is useful or threatening. That's probably why she never told me about you before. Because if you were a muggle, then you wouldn't be either one."

"That's..."

"Disgusting?"

"I was going to say sad. She must be awfully lonely," Harri said. "You too. You must be lonely."

Charlie rested her head on Harri's shoulder. "I have you now."

They sat like that, with Charlie continuing to play with Polly, and Harri looking out over the lake, until Harri said, "Tell me a story about you and your mother. Anything really. Good or bad."

"Huh... okay. Well... when I was five, I got spattergroit. Do you know what that is?"

"No."

"It's a really contagious illness that gives you purple spots. I probably got it from a fan, because I had been shaking hands a few days before. But there's no real cure, you just have to wait it out. I didn't go to the hospital - that's the worst thing to do, because then you spread it to sick people - I just stayed at home and Mum took care of me. She ordered the house elves not to go into my room, no matter what I said or did, because they can get it too. But when she came in, she had gloves on and a bubblehead charm to keep her from getting it, and she didn't cuddle me when she read to me. After the first week, she gave that up, and decided to get sick with me, because I was so miserable and lonely and just wanted a cuddle with my Mum. After that, the house elves had to leave the food on a tray outside the door, because she was stuck there with me. I remember once thinking I didn't want us to get better, because it was just us, no fans, no survival training. We played with toys, read, napped, cuddled. It was a great month."

"She loves you a lot," Harri said.

"Yeah," Charlie agreed. "Your turn. A story about you and Aunt Petunia."

Harri scrunched up her face. "I don't know if my story is as good as that. But I had decided to be a vegetarian. I had been working up to it for weeks. I came home from the library to tell Mum. And she was preparing pork chops in the kitchen. So I was going to wait, but she saw the look on my face, and asked what was wrong. I blurted it all out, that I had been reading about animal rights, and eating vegetarian at school, and I wanted to eat vegetarian at home too. She looked at the pork chops, and said. 'Is it okay if I give some of this to Mrs Figg for her cats?' and I said yes, because nothing is going to make a cat into a vegetarian. So she turned the expensive pork chops into cat food, and we went out for curry that night. The next day, I came home from school and she had a vegetarian cookbook and a pantry full of new things to try."

"That's brilliant," Charlie said. "About being a vegetarian - I never met one before, but that's why you don't use quills, right?"

"Yeah, I don't want to take the flight feathers off of birds. Fountain pens are easier to use as well."

"And why do you use parchment?"

"What about parchment?" Harri asked. "It's made of trees, right?"

Charlie sat up and looked at Harri. "Er, no, it's made of animal skin."

"Oh gross!" Harri said. "That is so much worse than quills! At least birds might have still been alive after having feathers taken! No. No, I'm not using parchment again."

"If that's the stand you're going to take, you'll get in trouble," Charlie warned. "I mean, I'm a Gryff, I'm all for standing up for your beliefs, just warning you."

"I'll still do my essays, I'll just use muggle paper!" Harri said. "I need to get more paper - I only have one notebook."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Mum will send me paper. Don't worry," Harri said.

* * *

Harri's new anti-parchment stand caused trouble immediately.

"Miss Evans," Professor McGonagall said. "What is this? Why isn't your essay written properly on parchment?"

"Professor, I was not aware until yesterday that parchment required the killing of animals. I am a vegetarian and I refuse to write essays on animal skin when there is a perfectly humane alternative available," Harri said.

"That is not acceptable," Professor McGonagall said. She handed the essay back. "Detention at six o'clock. You will rewrite this on parchment or receive a zero on your assignment."

Harri sat in detention in stubborn defiance, refusing to rewrite the essay, and she received a zero.

Professors Binns, Pettigrew, Potter and Sprout accepted her assignments on paper with no comment. Professors Flitwick and Sinistra were surprised, but accepted her reason. It was only Snape, Quirrell, and McGonagall who refused to back down. Every assignment for them received a zero mark and a detention. Not to mention the loss of points for her House. She was beginning to worry that Hufflepuff would get angry with her, but they didn't. In fact, they were remarkably supportive. Her roommates asked around collected muggle paper to make sure she didn't run out before her mother's owl arrived with a set of fresh notebooks. A few other Puffs began using muggle paper - Luna at first, then Wayne, then Megan. Neville apologised for not doing it, but he was sure his Gran would send him Howlers if he ever got detention. 

"It's okay," Harri assured him. "I don't expect anyone else to be a vegetarian. This is my own belief, not anyone else's."

Then Charlie asked to join in. "I thought about it. I don't have any paper, but I want to support you," she said. 

"Professor McGonagall is your Head of House," Harri said.

"So it will mean more if I do it," Charlie said.

"You'll get in trouble! You're too... important to get in trouble!" 

"Oh Merlin, that is definitely not true!" Charlie said. "If you want to make a stand, then having someone popular doing it will help."

Harri bit her lip. "What will your mother say?"

"She'd say it was up to me. I know, I asked her," Charlie said, with a crooked smile. "Course I also told her I was going to be a Gryffindor about it anyway, and she laughed and said I was so much like my father it took her breath away sometimes."

It did mean more having Charlie defying McGonagall and Snape with her. Not because it was the Girl-Who-Lived, but because it was her cousin. They sat in detentions together, with their growing crowd of muggle-loving misfits, and wondered when the breaking point would come. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon: Newspapers exist. On paper.  
> Canon: Ministry memos are sent as paper aeroplanes.  
> Also Canon: Students must use parchment.


End file.
